Time flies..... I'm baacckkkk!

Fat in AMERICA! 

Did you know that out of the 342/345 million people in the United States, over 100 million adults, 37-42 percent, are classified as obese? Seventy percent of the adult population could be categorized as overweight.  I am not surprised by those numbers, but I wanted to talk about them today.

Everywhere you turn, someone has an opinion on weight. What you should and shouldn't eat.  You should eat carbs; you shouldn't eat carbs.  Back in the day, the buzz was that you should stay away from fats.  Something is always trending, and companies are getting richer by the day.  Why?  Because we want to "fix" the problem. Society looks down on the overweight.  There is a stigma that comes with being overweight.

If you have read my blog, you know I attribute my young adult eating habits to a traumatic childhood.  Dad sobers up, and I get a sweet treat.  This went on for the first 12 years of my life.  Food was treated as a luxury, a healer, something that would numb the chaos if only for a little while.  I associated food with calm, happiness, and celebration.  I started gaining weight when I moved to California.  After my mom passed, I think I gained 50/60 lbs. I was heavy in my 20's.  I had Jacob at 30, and I knew I had to get the weight down to be able to keep up with my little boy.  My friend Lori told me about Weight Watchers and that she had lost 19 pounds and was still losing. I found a local meeting in Maryland, and over time, I was down 78 pounds.   I maintained that weight loss for about 5 years.  I tracked what I ate and walked almost every day.  The amount of attention you get from losing that much weight is crazy!  Reflecting back, I felt a little lost because no one ever said anything of substance to me; it was all about the way I looked. I have to say, it was an amazing feeling to go into a store and know you don't have to try anything on, it will just fit, and it will look good.  

When the RA diagnosis came in my mid/late thirties, I had to be put on steroids and other drugs.  The joint pain was so bad that I stopped walking/exercising and working out. The RA fatigue was overtaking me, and I had all I could do to go to work and be a present mom.  I turned to my old comforting friend, food, to make me feel better.  It didn't make me feel better, and over time I have put back on 50 of the 78lbs I had lost.  I have tracked food and points for so long that it has become unhealthy for me psychologically.  My Dr told me to stop tracking, that I know what I need to do. So, over the last couple of months, I haven't tracked.  I haven't lost weight, but I haven't gained it either.

About a year or maybe 2 years ago, I was at a doctor's appointment and of course, I brought up weight.  I always do before she does.  She says to me, I can give you something to jumpstart your weight loss.  She was talking GLP-1 but didn't say it directly. I said no, thank you. I know what I have to do.  This was before the GLP-1 explosion.  Fast forward to the present. I think I know more people on a GLP-1 than not.  It has been life-changing for some of my friends.  No longer pre-diabetic, cholesterol down, blood pressure down, they feel amazing.  I also have friends who had bariatric surgery, and they are doing incredibly. One misconception I hear all of the time is that folks who do these things are lazy; they are taking the easy way out.  If you walked in their shoes for one day, you would see that this is not the case. You have to change your lifestyle, or you will not be successful at any of it.  Whether you agree or disagree with the GLP-1 treatment, it is helping folks get off medications and allowing them to move more, which, in my opinion, is the start to a very healthy way of living.  After a very close friend of mine had amazing results on a GLP-1, I reluctantly decided to try it. I am very careful what I put in my body as I occasionally have to take a biologic for the RA.  I was on it for about 6 weeks and knew it wasn't going to do it for me. I was so constipated, and my belly felt horrible.  I kept hearing that this would pass, but I just knew it wasn't for me, and I stopped taking it.  

On the flip side of all of this, I also know women who have lost a significant amount of weight very, very fast, and they continue to lose.  Body dysmorphia is a real thing, and I fear that is what is going on.  

This is what I know to be my truth.  The weight I carry may be paying rent to stay.  I heard on an Oprah podcast from a Dr that your body naturally fights to stay at a certain weight. Do you ever notice that when you lose and then regain weight, you end up back at a certain weight, or close to it?  The weight loss/health industry wants us to buy all of these supplements, drinks, powders, etc., and most aren't even FDA-approved and have ingredients that I can not even pronounce. How is that healthy? Read the labels, know what you are putting in your body.  I feel the healthiest when I get back to basics. Eat whole foods, follow the 80/20 rule, drink plenty of water, make sleep a priority, move my body, and be kind to myself.  I told my Dr. a couple of months ago that I am tired of thinking about weight. I will be 54 in August.  I want to be free of the scale that seems to be shackled to my ankle. I want to have balance and not feel guilty or ashamed if I have a piece of cake or a donut from time to time.  It is all about balance. 

As I leave you, I want you to know you are a masterpiece.  Release the guilt!  You are more than a number on a scale. Let's stop overcomplicating and get back to basics. Let's celebrate the amazing humans that we are and all of the things we have done and overcome in this life. Let's support one another as we decide what is best for each of us on our journey to be healthy.  Let's get rid of that BMI table as it is so antiquated. Let's celebrate those "Non-Scale Victories"!  Your pants fit better, you were able to walk a bit further, you were able to take a few bites of a dessert and not demolish the whole thing.  It is not all about a scale or numbers - how do you feel?  My goal now is not a number on a scale. It is balance, it is forgiveness, it is kindness to myself, it is becoming stronger, it is moving more, it is enjoying life unapologetically.       

Be BOLD!